Propagation: Heat mat and excessive drying of soil, 4 by lilmiss44

lilmiss44 wrote:
Thank you all so much for the information.

I should have included the part where I am starting them in my garage which is not heated and usually is pretty cool. I am in Oregon though so we don't get really cold here very often. I have a temp gage that shows the garage outside the stand I have set up is about 50-60 deg most of the time. I also put one in the stand that shows about 70-80 deg as it is set up now.

I have read many articles and forums where that should be perfect conditions for growing and keeping the soil warm. If the outside temp is 70-80, the soil temp would be about 5-10 deg cooler than that. I figured the difference in temp was because of the lights and the heat mat together. It does make sense tho, for the heat mat/light shelf to be too warm causing the dryness.

I have the lights on a timer and they go off at night from 11p - 7a. And mostly what I was concerned about is my other seedlings and night time temps. I have thought about turning off the heat mat, but don't want to hurt the seedlings that are doing great. I have had very few sprouts with the ones on the heat mat, like only about 3-4 out of 60 cells and dont think I will get anymore from those trays. I plan to replant those and try again.

If my growing seedlings will not be bothered by turning off the heat mat, I will try that. And, the heat mat is not on a thermostat. I am enclosing pictures of my set up. As you can see the shelf with the heat mat/2nd shelf is not sprouting and I planted those first. I am including some pix to show my set up. Again, thank you all for the info.